The 30,000 smartphones being bought for the Metropolitan Police in a bid to
cut down on the time officers spend behind a desk could end up being used as
“expensive paperweights”, Acpo has warned.

The plan to equip almost all of the officers with devices such as iPads, iPhones and BlackBerrys is part of a plan by the Met chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe to increase the amount of time officers spend out on the streets.

The idea is that by giving officers the latest devices – which are likely to cost the Met around £10m - they can process forms and reports on the go, without having to return to the station.

The investment comes despite the force being made to cut £500m from its annual £3.6bn budget in line with the Government's austerity measures.

Chief Constable Simon Parr, from the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), warned that the new devices would need to allow officers access to all the information that they would be able to access when they are back at HQ.

"If you want to replace pen and paper you need something that works at 3am in the rain … otherwise they will end up as paperweights, to be blunt,” Chief Constable Parr said, addressing the London Assembly’s Budget and Performance Committee.

“Nobody takes their gloves off to use their phone at 3am in the middle of the night - that’s human nature,” he added.

Dr Tom Jackson from Loughborough University, who has studied the use of mobile technology at Leicestershire Police, added that he was “horrified” by the small size of some of the devices on the market and warned that officers would not use them unless they were user friendly.

He pointed out that some devices were too small for officers to fill in crime reports properly – one of the key functions for any new device.

John Biggs, chairman of the committee, said: “Everyone agrees that the police need to spend more time out on the streets, tackling crime and reassuring communities, and less time in the office doing the dull but essential back office jobs.

"That’s why it’s so important that the Met gets the best deal when it invests in technology, like smartphones and tablet computers that allow officers to access information on the go.”

The Met has not disclosed exactly what type of smartphones and tablets they plan to invest in.

The Budget and Performance Committee meetings are being held to focus on the Met’s technology strategy and plan to cut the information and communications budget by £42 million in 2014-15 and £60m in 2015-16.